Highlights today at the park - 7 June'16

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
Zone C

Ripe fruits of the  Sealing wax palm
Zone C 

CU of Drunken Sailor ( Quisqualis indica)
Zone C

A Plantain squirrel biting more than it can chew
Zone C

The 'Queen of Sarawak' palms bearing fruits

The top branch is showing inflorescence and the lower branch shows the ripe fruits.
The  inflorescence (flowering structure) is highly branched to 3 orders and spreading.
Picture shows the orange variety.
Location:  Provinsi Lakka,  Zone F

 I have great love for this 'Queen of Sarawak' palms – the Sealing Wax Palm or 'Pinang Raja' or 'lakka' as it is variously called. It grows naturally in Bintulu's peat swamp forest areas but what I have done here is to transplant it in a lowland dipterocarp forest environment. No problem. It is a palm that can thrive well even when removed from its original habitat. There are two species I plant here viz the orange form and the red form. The brilliant orange or red colours that one sees is actually the sheath or leaf bases. Seen from a distance these leaf sheaths form colourful crown shafts and thus make the palm a preferred choice for the 'exotic tropical look'. These leaf sheaths will fall off the erect stem when they are old and in the process leaving leaf scars. The Sealing Wax Palm has a clumping habit, which I think is a blessing because offsets can be cut off from the clump and become new planting materials. Another way to propagate this palm is by germinating the seeds. From my experience the growth rate and germination rate is poor when grown from seeds. Thus better get fresh materials from the main clump's offsets.

After flowering, fruits are formed in shallow pits on the rachilla or branch bearing the flowers ( and later the fruits). Guess I'll try my luck again to germinate those seeds below.

Ripe fruits of the 'Pinang Lakka'  held in shallow pits.
Sealing Wax Palm - Cyrtostachys renda
Syn: Crytostachys lakka

In Plain Sight - Provinsi Lakka (Part 2)

View of Provinsi Lakka, looking south
In the foreground is the Pong-Pong tree
Location : Zone F

Apple-like fruits of the Pong-Pong

 Provinsi Lakka is located at Zone F.  So far there are three clumps of the Sealing-wax palm planted at the area.  It is interesting to note that from two of the clumps I have obtained many plantlets by just removing or separating them from the mother tree.  Two varieties of the Sealing-wax palm are available on site.  One has deep orange leaf sheath while the other is in bright red.  There are other side attractions at the Provinsi Lakka.  A Pong-Pong tree nearby is attractive for its daily flowers and fruits that look like apples.  Other flowering shrubs and herbs planted includes the hibiscus, heliconias, scented pandanus (Pandanus amaryllifolius), variegated Bunga Cina (Gardenia jasminoides) etc.

Many names are given to this attractive palm e.g. Lipstick Palm, Pinang Raja, Sealing-wax palm
Botanic name : Cyrtostachys renda
Syn: Cyrtostachys lakka

 The Sealing-wax palm is a very attractive ornamental tree that should be used more generously in our Malaysian garden or Laman Kambatik.  More Sealing-wax palm will be added to the Provinsi Lakka gradually.

A variegated form of the Gardenia jasminoides

Bunga Raya (Malay) - national flower of Malaysia - Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

Uprooting a beauty

Trench the surrounding and dig out the  base of the clump into a root ball

Close up of Sandak or chisel

 How do you uproot a beautiful palm and find home for it elsewhere, successfully?  At the park it done by simple manual method of trenching and  making the base of the palm like a ball.  By this method the root system is intact and the clump can be transplanted to its new home.  The main tool is the 'sandak' or chisel used for cutting the base of oil palm branches.  When the root ball is free it is a little effort to wedge it out of the trench.  The Sealing Wax Palm has been previously known as Cyrtostachys lakka but now it is called  Cyrtostachys renda.  It is native to Borneo, thus Sarawak, thus Bintulu.  The one that I removed today will be made as instant planting material for the Provinsi Lakka.  Today I saved RM 500, being the price of the palm this size at the current market value.

At this height , the palm will fetch RM 500 at any local nursery in Bintulu.